The South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation, or SASEC, Program was established in 2001 to promote activities to accelerate economic growth and prosperity. Four initial members—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal—were later joined by the Maldives and Sri Lanka in 2014, and by Myanmar in 2017.Source: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)

SASEC is a project-based partnership. The program has invested more than $9 billion into development activities in transport, trade facilitation, energy, economic corridors, and information and communications technology.Source: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)

Finance ministers of SASEC member countries launched a new vision for the program in April 2017 in New Delhi, India. The vision provides a roadmap for helping member countries unlock the full potential of their natural resources, industries, and infrastructure. It includes suggestions for resource-to-industry links, industry-to-industry links, and industry-to-infrastructure links, which collectively will generate economic synergies benefiting the whole subregion.Source: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Vision: Powering Asia in the 21st Century

Areas suggested for collaboration include a pipeline corridor between Bangladesh and India for crude oil import and product supply; an LPG transshipment and storage hub in Sri Lanka; passenger car assembly in Bangladesh; internal connectivity for enhanced tourism and trade in the Maldives; development of SASEC as a tourist destination; and cross-border power trade between countries of the subregion.Source: South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Vision: Powering Asia in the 21st Century